All of my Mother-in-law's 5'11" frame was stacked with earned country club. She looked like Elisabeth Taylor. This woman raised four boys alone in a small town, in the south, in the 60's and 70s. (let's pause for a moment to think about that.....). Now she had a son who brought a stranger from "God knows where? California!, Hollywoods in California!"
This large figure was going to make it clear who was in charge. She was determined to teach me about Little Southern Women. Immediately I was in the middle of charming sarcasm covered with "Bless her heart" honey. My new Mother-in-law was very suspicious of me, and she let me know it quick. I might have well been a foreigner needing english lessons.
I couldn't help it though, I loved her instantly, even though I was afraid of her. Eventually we got along splendidly, I had two things going for me before the Dogwoods would bloom that first year, my willingness to go to church, and, I was having her grand baby.
My new entrepreneur Father-in-law was a southern world-wise intellectual. We would have many lingering conversations over the years. Most stemming from the fact that he was an atheist, I was not.
Mark's brothers were cool. One of them surfed and lived with Mark in Hawaii. I had already met him there so, when he moved back to NC the three of us were surf companions. Mark's younger brother lived in a small town along the Neuse River. We were the same age. When we first moved to NC Mark's older brother lived in Baltimore. He blew glass bongs. Later he too moved near the Neuse River with all 5 of his kids.
I had truly entered another world!
My first NC winter was so damn cold, it even snowed, and by the end of February I was pregnant with our son. I had gotten a wetsuit large enough and surfed through the winter and early spring, but when June came I was way to big to paddle. Once summer came, and the ocean water warmed up into the 80s, I went crazy. I wasn't able to surf my first summer nor hurricane season in NC. I spent the whole time learning maternity exercises so I wouldn't blow up like a balloon.
Pregnant. The shed was Mark's shaping room
In March of 1982 my Great Grandmother died. She was first generation over from Europe. Finland to be exact. I loved her deeply. Her death was my first encounter with true family sadness. She lived in West Palm Springs Fl. A favored memory I have of visiting her was the time my Mom and I went there when I was in high school. It was the first time I had surfed West Palm Beach and noticed East Coast surfers. I told my Great-grandmother, Aiti, how cute and polite they were.
"Yas, my dear, dey are. Don't date em unless dey can Polka dough." she said with a heavy accent and a little grin. I was yet to understand European humor.
Aiti
When I returned to NC after her funeral I had brought half her kitchen with me. I was feeling the domestic engineer emerging from my soul and my Aiti's cooking tools were like a heritage I wanted to grasp. At this point I was hanging on to my Finish blood. Maybe it was because I was having a baby. Or maybe it was because I had moved to a place where the culture was very different than anything I had known outside of civil war stories.
Aiti left me a little money so Mark and I set up a shaping room with it. Mark had learned to shape while living in Hawaii. I was glad about his skills because kneeboarding hadn't really hit the East Coast so I wondered where I was going to get boards. Mark took templates off of my two Robert Augusts and shaped me a pretty good board.
By November our son, Shaun was born and I started working on getting myself back in shape for the New Year. I started doing 80's aerobics and both of us joined a gym to lift weights. I bought a bicycle and started riding again. When Spring of 1983 came around I had lost all my baby fat and was ready to hit the North Carolina surf with my new kneeboard!
Mark's first attempt at a kneeboard. A 5'6 swallow tail twin-fin...
...it rode pretty good. Carolina Beach, NC
Mark and I surfed a lot after Shaun was born. We'd go to the beach and one of us would sit with our son while the other would surf. Then we'd switch places. We did this with both of our kids. It's probably why neither one of them ever surfed. When Mark and I started doing ESA contests Shaun got real bored. The truth was, the more we won, the more Shaun was at the beach, and at this point, both Mark and I were winning a lot.
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